Jeff T. Green for The New York Times
{photo caption} This fish ladder was installed at Ice Harbor Dam to
assist fish movement on the Snake River near Burbank, Wash., one of two
at the dam.

WA$$$HINGTON, Nov. 30 - The Bush administration on Tuesday ruled out the
possibility of removing federal dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers to
protect 11 endangered species of salmon and steelhead, even as a last
resort.

In an opinion issued by the fisheries division of the National
Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the government declared
that the eight large dams on the lower stretch of the two rivers are an
immutable part of the salmon's environment.

Endangered fish, the opinion said, can be protected by a variety of
measures, including carrying fish around dams and building weirs - a new
type of weir that works like a water slide - to ease young fishes'
journey through dams as they swim downstream to the ocean. The total
cost of the 10-year effort was projected at $6 billion. Assuming annual
expenditures of $600 million, this represents a slight increase over
existing spending for this purpose.

"It is clear that each of the dams already exists, and their existence
is beyond the present discretion" of federal agencies to reverse, the
opinion said.

The decision is a departure from the Clinton administration's approach
to salmon protection. In 2000, it adopted a policy that allowed for dam
removal, although only if all other measures had failed.

The Bush administration opinion, first released in draft form in
September, provoked immediate outrage on the part of environmentalists
and some tribal groups, who see it as another in a series of federal
actions weakening protection for the salmon that are an integral part of
the regional identity of the Northwest, and whose numbers have been
sharply reduced over the decades by overfishing, dam construction,
industrial pollution and suburban sprawl.

Earlier this year the fisheries division proposed including fish bred in
hatcheries along with their wild cousins when calculating whether a
salmon species is still endangered.

Environmentalists say the administration is retreating from the goal of
recovering salmon to robust populations, settling for the status quo.

A spokesman for the fisheries division disagreed, saying the actions the
agencies were taking or planned to take would be sufficient to protect
the salmon. In a conference call Tuesday afternoon, officials of the
fisheries service and the other agencies involved pointed out that they
had drafted a letter addressed to the citizens of the Northwest with the
assurance that "this approach does not represent a reduction in our
commitment to salmon recovery."

In May, a senior Commerce Department official wrote to Congress that
despite the decision to include hatchery fish when determining the
health of fish populations, the department would probably conclude that
most species currently considered endangered would remain so.

In a conference call Tuesday afternoon on the guidance to dam operators,
Bob Lohn of the Northwest regional office of the fisheries service said,
"The actions proposed by the federal agencies do provide major steps in
making their operations fish-friendly." The dams already include fish
ladders that enable many adult salmon to reach the higher parts of the
rivers where they spawn.

The policy is effectively a roadmap to guide the operations of the
federal agencies and power authorities that operate dams on the Columbia
and Snake Rivers. It also includes an appendix with detailed
prescriptions for "reducing the risk factors" for eight of the 11
species - prescriptions which, in some cases, call for some commingling
of hatchery and wild fish.

But, Mr. Lohn added, the policy "does not suggest that the dams result
in no damage or that nothing should be done" to mitigate the effects
that occur. Referring to the letter, he added, "We desire and we are
eager to work with the region, with states and tribes, to complete the
comprehensive plan" to set priorities for salmon recovery.

But one representative of the National Wildlife Federation immediately
asserted that the letter to the citizens did not have the standing of
the formal biological opinion and so amounted to no legal commitment.
John Kober, the wildlife program manager in the group's Seattle office,
said, "What we'd likely find if this plan were carried out in 10 years
is exactly where we are today - fish hovering near extinction thresholds
and never getting one step closer to recovery."

The National Wildlife Federation, along with the State of Oregon,
successfully sued the Commerce Department, parent of the fisheries
service, winning a judgment in 2003 that found that the Clinton policy,
which included the possibility of dam removal among other remedies, was
too vague and did not go far enough to protect the fish.

That judgment, by Judge James Redden of Federal District Court in
Portland, opened the door for the Bush administration to revisit the
issue and produce the opinion that was announced on Tuesday.

After the new policy was proposed in September, Judge Redden expressed
skepticism at a court hearing, warning that the administration could be
headed for a "train wreck."

Mr. Kober said Tuesday that "we certainly are looking seriously at
continuing our litigation as a last resort," in light of the new
opinion. An Oregon fish and wildlife official said officials there were
still studying the opinion.